Home for the Holidays

by Sara Richardson

  “What about Gregory?” Dally asked Rose. “I’m surprised he let you come. You two seem to keep such a busy schedule and I’m sure it’s even busier around the holidays.”

  Before Rose could answer, the back door blew open, sending in a gust of wind and swirling snowflakes.

  “Whew! It’s colder than a polar bear’s tonsils out there.” Sassy seemed to float in on the wind, shutting the door tightly behind her before leaning against it. The woman had bundled herself in a red and black plaid scarf along with a matching flannel beret. Her flaming red hair—always in artful disarray—stuck out beneath the cap. In her hands, she balanced a large box, and it only took seconds for Mags to realize what was in it. The Christmas ornaments she remembered so well.

  “My girls.” Sassy set down the box on the counter and shook her head slowly back and forth. “You’re here. Finally! You’re here!”

  Mags had forgotten how melodious her aunt’s voice had always been.

  “We’re happy to be here.” She stood up, ready to greet her aunt with a hug. Sassy hadn’t changed a bit. Her aunt’s dazzling smile and her expressive green eyes still exuded warmth, and tenderness. Mags embraced her, detecting the scent of jasmine that always used to make her nose twitch. “We couldn’t resist coming to the Juniper Inn for Christmas.”

  “Especially when we were so worried,” Dahlia added, taking her turn for a hug. “The way you wrote that letter, we thought something might be wrong.”

  “Whatever would be wrong?” Sassy asked, gathering Rose into the hug.

  Mags traded looks with her sisters. It seemed not even Dahlia wanted to admit they’d assumed she was dying.

  “Well, um…” Rose delicately cleared her throat the way a Southern belle would. “It’s just you said you wanted us here for your last Christmas at the Juniper Inn.”

  “Oh, that.” Sassy scooted past them and picked up the box again. “Well, yes. I guess I owe you an explanation, don’t I?” She headed for the hallway smiling at them over her shoulder. “Let’s move into the living room so we can decorate the tree while we chat. I need to tell you the whole story.”

  Oh, the tree. Mags fell back into a memory. They’d always had such fun decorating Sassy’s tree. It had been so different than the one in their own home—with its matching ornaments and stately ribbons. Sassy had all varieties of decorations for her tree. Little trinkets she’d handmade and ornaments guests at the inn had brought from far-off places. Mags followed her aunt to the living room. She couldn’t wait to see them all again.

  The evergreen tree in the corner couldn’t have stood more than five feet tall. It was bare in certain places and full in others, but somehow it fit the inn perfectly. And it smelled like Christmas with that fresh pine scent.

  “I suppose it’s always best to start at the beginning.” Her aunt set the box in front of the tree and sat down next to it. Mags and Rose and Dally all joined her, and Mags couldn’t help but start to pull out some of the ornaments she’d treasured as a child—the pink and brown gingerbread man, the fat, jolly Santa made out of clay. Oh! And there was the miniature nutcracker with the tall red hat.

  Sassy reached into the box and hung a stained-glass heart onto a branch. “Many, many years ago—when I was in my early twenties—I was very much in love with a young man. Larry Douglas.” She sighed a happy sigh as she said his name.

  “You were in love?” It shouldn’t have surprised her, but Mags had never thought of Sassy as the type to swoon over a man. In her memories, their aunt had been happy and complete on her own.

  “I was,” Sassy confirmed. She carefully selected an intricate star made out of silvery paper and placed it on a low branch. “Larry and I were desperately in love. But my parents forbid me to date him. He was black,” she explained. “And they said it would be too hard for us to make a life together. Back in those days, people didn’t take kindly to a black man marrying a white woman. And—”

  “But that’s not fair,” Rose interrupted. She set down the funny octopus ornament she’d been holding. “You should be free to marry whoever you want—”

  Mags nudged her to quiet down so Sassy could continue.

  “It wasn’t fair,” Sassy agreed. “But that’s the way it was.” Her green eyes took on a wistful tint. “Larry and I didn’t care though. We were determined to be together. He was the kindest man I’d ever met up until that point in my life. A hard worker. Honest. We talked about running away together. We wanted to secretly get married and move to New York where people were more open-minded than they were in Savannah.” Her aunt peered into the box and carefully lifted out a delicate snowflake. “But in the end he couldn’t do it.” She stared past Mags at the tree, seemingly caught up in a memory. “He said he would never feel right about sneaking me away from my family. So, he asked my father for my hand in marriage.”

  Mags found her hand moving over her heart. She could almost feel her aunt’s emotions crackling to life in her chest. The love, the hope it had brought her. That was exactly how she’d felt when she’d met Eric—like she would do anything to be with him. “What happened?” She was almost afraid to ask. It couldn’t have been a happy ending if Sassy had never married him…

  “After he asked my father, my parents decided to send me away.” Though emotion seemed to brighten her eyes, Sassy spoke matter-of-factly. “They sent me here. To the Juniper Inn.” She added another snowflake to a twisted branch. “My mother’s brother owned it back then. He’d had the place built brand-new from the ground up, and they told him I could help him manage it.”

  “Oh, Sassy,” Dahlia crooned from the other side of the box. She’d laid out six ornaments on the floor in front of her, but none of them had made it onto the tree. “That’s so sad. How could they do that to you?”

  “They did what they thought best,” she said simply. “I think they liked Larry, if you want the truth. My parents weren’t the sort of people to judge based on someone’s skin color, but they were afraid for me. They were afraid for him, too.”

  A tear rolled down Mags’s cheek, and she quickly dabbed her eyes with her sleeve. All this time their aunt had a tragic love story in her past, and they’d had no idea…

  “What happened to Larry?” Rose demanded. “After you left? Did you stay in touch with him?”

  “For a while.” Sassy picked up a beaded candy cane. She seemed determined to get the tree decorated. “But it was too hard. Knowing we would never be together. He wrote me a letter and told me he loved me, but he said he couldn’t pursue a relationship anymore knowing my parents were against it.”

  “But you were a grown woman!” Mags couldn’t help the anger that spilled out of her. How unfair. Her grandparents had never been overly warm, friendly people, but to destroy their daughter’s chance at true love? That wasn’t right.

  Sassy chuckled as though the outburst amused her. “Things were different for young women in those days, my dear.” This time she hung a crocheted stocking with a few pulled threads on the tree. “We didn’t have as many options, as much say as you do these days.”

  What would that have been like? Mags couldn’t imagine. She dug through the box and found one of her absolute favorite ornaments of all time—a beautiful glass butterfly with colorful wings.

  “My parents knew how strong my feelings were for Larry.” Sassy stood up to hang a pine cone on a higher branch and then sat back down. “They knew if I stayed in Savannah, I wouldn’t be able to stay away from him. So, they moved me here.”

  Unbelievable. Mags didn’t say it out loud. Her mother hadn’t been thrilled when she’d met Eric. He was only a firefighter, after all. Instead of coming from a high-society Southern family, his parents had emigrated from Puerto Rico just before he was born. But even Lillian hadn’t forbidden her from marrying him.

  “So you lost touch with the man you loved?” Rose finally added an ornament to the tree—a delicate ballerina that was missing one toe shoe.

  “I heard he married someone else a few
years later.” Sassy’s soft smile appeared genuine. “He seemed happy. And I was happy here.” She looked around the cozy living room, the smile fading. “I was happy here for a long time. When my aunt and uncle wanted to retire, they offered me the inn, and by then I loved it too much to let it go.”

  But she’d told them it would be her last Christmas here… “You don’t love it anymore?” Mags asked.

  Their aunt took her time answering. “I will always love it. But it no longer serves me. I don’t have the sense of purpose here I once did.” Her eyes misted over. “It used to be a busy place. I got to know many of the families who would come year after year, but as time went on, they stopped coming. They found other places to travel. Nicer, more luxurious places. I tried to keep up with things, but the buildings were aging quickly, and good help was hard to find.” She shook her head sadly. “No one has stayed here as a guest in over two years. And…well now it feels like a lonely place to be.”

  Mags’s heart crumpled thinking about her aunt living here all alone. Watching things change. Watching the place age and not being able to do anything about it. “Well, we’re here now.” Thank goodness they’d come.

  “Yes. We are,” Dahlia added, placing a rooster ornament on the tree. “And we can help you, Sassy. We can do whatever you need us to do.”

  Rose gasped, nearly dropping the glass globe she held in her hand. “We can redecorate!”

  Their aunt laughed—a delighted joyous sound. “I can’t thank you enough for coming. It’s true what I said—this will be my last Christmas at the Juniper.” Her gaze fell on the box again. “But I certainly hope it won’t be yours.” This time she selected a tiny framed picture of the four of them, placing it right on the front of the tree. “That’s why I asked you to come. I might be ready to start a new journey, but I can’t let this place go completely. Not when it has been so much a part of this family.”

  Mags froze and stared at their aunt in disbelief. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

  “You’re giving us the inn?” Rose asked breathlessly.

  “I specifically asked you to come for Christmas because I need your help to pull off one last Christmas extravaganza at the Juniper Inn.” Her expression sobered. “You all know how important our holiday party is to this town and we only have a few weeks to get things in order. We’ll have to decorate this whole place and make the desserts.” She paused as though she wanted to give them time to digest the information. “And then, if you so choose, I’m offering to give you three ownership over the inn. You would each own a third. That’s the deal. You own it together, keep it in the family…or I sell to some developer who’ll likely level it to build condos.”

  “But…” Mags couldn’t believe Sassy would ever want to give this place up. It had always seemed so much a part of her. “What are you going to do?”

  “I’m not exactly sure yet.” Sassy hung a gold bell on the tree. “All I know is it’s time for me to move on.”

  “So…what?” Dahlia’s expression bordered on panic. “You want us to stay here and manage the inn?”

  Sassy shrugged. “I want you to do whatever you want with it. Make it whatever you want it to be. Redecorate it and open it again, if you want. Or keep it for your families as a place you can get away.”

  “But we all have lives far away from here.” Mags pictured the beach, the beautiful Florida sunshine. As much as she loved the inn, she wasn’t sure she could stand the snow half the year.

  Sassy seemed to wave their concerns away. “You don’t have to decide now. We’ll fix this place up, pull off the best Christmas extravaganza this town has ever seen, and then you can let me know your decision on Christmas. But keep an open mind, my dears. It’s never too early or late to start over, to choose the life that will bring you the most joy. Anything is possible.”

  Never too late. Mags held on to those words. Could they be true for her and Eric too?

  Chapter Nine

  Rose

  What in heaven’s name was that incessant buzzing? Rose pawed her way out from underneath a pile of soft pillows and the downy quilt that made her want to lounge in this lumpy queen-sized bed forever…or at least for another couple hours.

  She couldn’t remember that last time she’d slept feeling so cozy and tucked in, but she forced her eyes open and squinted at the nightstand where her phone sat bouncing across the surface.

  She reached for it but let her head fall back to the pillows as a weak “Hello?” croaked from her throat.

  “Rose?” Gregory’s voice projected through the line, much too loudly.

  “Yeah?” She held the phone an inch away from her ear.

  “What’s wrong, babe? Are you sick?”

  “No.” She cleared the frog from her throat. They’d stayed up well past midnight reminiscing, and discussing Sassy’s crazy proposition. “Not sick, just sleeping.” She closed her eyes ready to get back to it.

  “Sleeping?” Gregory’s voice echoed through the speaker. “But it’s almost nine o’clock there.”

  “Really?” Rose pulled the phone away and squinted at the time on the screen. Sure enough. “Huh. I had no idea.” Because she’d been sleeping. Peacefully sleeping, thank you very much. Granted, Gregory had every right to be surprised. She couldn’t remember the last time she’s slept past six. Back home, she and Gregory woke up at five o’clock every morning so they could hit the gym together before he had to be at work at seven. Man, she’d forgotten how much she loved sleeping in.

  “You must be sick.” Gregory now lowered his voice like he didn’t want anyone to overhear their conversation. Someone must’ve walked into his office.

  “I’m not sick. In fact, I feel great.” A contentedness seemed to weight her body to the bed as she glanced around the room. Nothing had changed since she’d last slept in this same cozy bedroom all those years ago. Back then, she’d had a slight obsession with princesses, and Sassy had been happy to oblige. Her aunt had painted the room a soft baby pink and had made a gauzy tulle canopy for the bed along with matching curtains for the window. Framed fairy-tale pictures hung on the walls, depicting each princess’s happily-ever-after—Cinderella, Snow White, Rapunzel, and her personal favorite—Sleeping Beauty. Her aunt used to tell her that if she went to sleep surrounded by happily-ever-afters, she would find hers someday, too.

  As she looked around, her heart seemed to settle back into place. She didn’t know if it was being back at the inn or being with her sisters or looking forward to the prospect of spending the next few weeks caught up in Juniper Springs’ simplicity rather than rushing around from holiday event to holiday event, but a blissfulness lightened her heart.

  “You need to get up,” Gregory said. “Half your day is wasted. Why don’t you go for a run outside?”

  Rose propped herself up on her elbows so she could peer out the large picture window on the other side of the room. “It’s snowing.” She would not be going for a run today. In fact, she didn’t have much on the agenda for the day except getting reacquainted with the property and figuring out what they had to do to get the place in shape for the Christmas extravaganza. “Besides, I’m on vacation.”

  “Vacation?” Gregory paused and said something she couldn’t make out. He must’ve been asking whoever was in his office to give him a minute. “I didn’t realize you were going on vacation. I thought you were there to take care of your dying aunt.”

  “Oh. Right. About that…” Relief washed over her yet again. Gregory knew how worried she’d been when she’d received Sassy’s package. “Aunt Sassy isn’t dying. She’s not even sick, actually. It was all a misunderstanding.” Silence lingered on the other end of the line, so Rose continued. “She looks amazing, actually. Almost exactly like I remember her. Isn’t that great?”

  “Yes, babe. That is truly great news.” Finally, his tone had softened. “I’ll go ahead and send out the jet so you can come home.”

  Home? Rose sat all the way up, the old bedsprings groa
ning beneath her. “No. I can’t come home.”

  “Yes, you can.” Gregory’s voice always took on a nasally tone when he got annoyed. “Your aunt doesn’t need you there and I need you here.” He groaned. “You heard my mother go over the list of events we’re supposed to appear at over the next two weeks. I can’t do this alone.”

  Exactly. His mother had committed to the events. It was his family. Those were their events, not hers. Not yet. “I promised Sassy I would stay. We’re all staying. Dahlia and Magnolia, too. It’s already settled.” She left no room for him to argue.

  There was a long pause before Gregory spoke again. “I don’t understand. Why would you stay?” He sounded genuinely confused, but for some reason Rose didn’t want to tell him about her aunt offering them the inn at the end of their stay. It wasn’t like they’d get to keep it anyway. How could the three of them possibly manage the place from three different states? Mags didn’t seem open to moving to the arctic tundra, as she referred to Juniper Springs. And Dahlia kept saying she was too busy to even think about adding something else to her life. Gregory didn’t need to know any of that though. Not yet.

  “Sassy has asked us to spend the holiday with her. She needs some help fixing this place up, and she’s lonely. Spending one Christmas with her isn’t too much to ask.” She let a chord of annoyance slip into her pitch, too. If he could always be catering to his mother and his family, she could fulfill her aunt’s request this one time.

  “What am I supposed to tell everyone?” Gregory asked. “It won’t look good if you’re not by my side. Everyone will expect my fiancée to be there. I can’t very well tell them your aunt is dying now. Someone’s bound to find out that’s not true.”

  “I don’t care what you tell them.” She could never seem to make herself care as much about what everyone else thought as the Cunninghams did, though she’d tried. “I have every right to spend Christmas with my family. My sisters and I haven’t been in the same room for well over a year, and I’m not going to miss this chance to spend Christmas with them.” Who knew when they would all be together again? Besides that, she’d noticed Dahlia seemed…off. Tired, maybe? Or stressed. And last night she’d noticed Magnolia’s smile hadn’t been as broad as it used to be. Her sisters had changed. She’d changed. And this was the perfect chance for them to get to know each other again.